Machu Picchu was purposely built on intersecting fault lines: research (2019)

The pass by Mt Salkantay was just over 15K ft at the highest point. I’d been training in Colorado so didn’t get sick, but definitely felt it! One person in our group did get a bit sick, our guide had him huff some kind of tincture. The coca candies/tea helped a bit as well.

Edit to add: the first day in Cuzco is pretty rough though, spent all day lounging and napping. It’s around 11K ft.

I visited in December 2017 and was worried about altitude sickness, but was quite rushed the days before the trip and didn’t have a chance to get sickness pills from my doctor.

I personally didn’t feel any symptoms, and neither did my friends. We’re all active and healthy people in their 20s.

The only real impact was reaching a shortness of breath much more quickly: hiking and such was certainly a lot more difficult than I’m used to at sea level. I had the same type of experience ski touring in Colorado; never really feeling satiated from breathing during vigorous activity.

I didn't, but by the time I visited Machu Picchu I had already spent a couple of weeks at altitude, including climbing a 6,000 m summit.

Altitude sickness is a weird one, I'm a smoker and don't exercise, yet I was affected less than my friends who were all non-smokers and exercise regularly.

I found that we were not affected by it at all, apart from occasionally out of nowhere just needing to take a really deep breath every now and then. This would be at really odd moments where I was not really exerting myself - e.g. sitting at the dinner table. We still drunk the cocotea etc though for the "authentic" experience! For what it was worth, we were not especially fit and a bit overweight at the time.

We spent a few days in Cuzco taking it easy to acclimatise. We were more worried about getting sick from taking showers or drinking local water than the altitude. There is some cool blockwork to see in Cuzco too (although it is quite a steep walk up to the citadel)

The only thing that made me sick was the anti-altitude medication. That stuff is nasty.

Oh, sure, I got exhausted crossing the Dead Woman's Pass but considering I had just walked up the side of a mountain, that's not so surprising. A week in Arequipa and a week in Cusco before trekking to Machu Picchu is enough to acclimatize your body. If you fly in and take the tourist bus to the snapchat opportunity, things might be different.

One thing I'll assert is that a couple of weeks later I ran my best ever time in a road race.

I spent a night in an altitude sickness clinic in Cusco on my way there! When we’d arrived (I was traveling with a large group for my friend’s wedding) we had some tours planned. They tell you not to hike, not to eat a big meal, and not to drink alcohol. So of course most of us did all three.

I’ve never had problems before even at similar altitudes, but my O2 sat got down to nearly 80 by the time I was put in the ambulance. It wasn’t pleasant.

But, a night hooked up to oxygen and I was fine. The hospital mostly catered to people with altitude sickness (even the locals get it, and it is seemingly random in who gets it and when) and was nicer than my hotel.

I got an ambulance ride there and a night in the hospital. They made me sign a waiver saying I agreed to pay it no matter the cost, and I was thinking about how many organs I’d have to sell to pay for it. Final price: $130. The place was cheaper and nicer than my hotel, and with decent meals and all the oxygen you can huff, so next time I’ll just book it.

Edit: one piece of advice. If you’re going to somewhere with that altitude, get a cheap pulse oxymeter on Amazon first! The hotels don’t have them.

We went to Machu Picchu around 10 years back, and as I'm slightly asthmatic I was a bit worried about the altitude sickness.

I'd read beforehand than coca leaves help prevent it, and made sure I drank lots of coca tea during our time there.

I don't know if it was the coca, but I barely felt the effects of altitude. We even went up the mountain beside the ruins (Huayna Picchu?), and it was no problem at all (at the time I was of medium build, but not particularly fit).

Cocoa tea tastes quite nice anyway, and the locals swear by the stuff - I recommend it.

On Salkantay (which can be a luxury trip, the facilities are first-rate), you start at Cuzco for a day or two which is a higher elevation than MP. But the pass is ~15k, which takes a few days to hike to on the trail.

Getting over the pass was still a major chore for many in our group. The last 1k uphill was walking 100' and taking a minute break. People who raced up or down got sick.

For anyone contemplating going, it’s worth visiting a doctor for a script to get acetazolamide (trade name Diamox). Heed the advice to eat very little and avoid/reduce alcohol. The number of people we saw ruin their holiday for the sake of a big meal and a couple of beers.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetazolamide

Wikipedia says Machu Pichu is only 2,400 meters / 7,900 feet altitude? That's not that high.

I mean, sure, try to acclimate somewhere if you're coming in from sea level, but much of Colorado is at that elevation, and the peaks are above 14,000 feet. Traveling to ski at Telluride is more elevation.

Yes, you can walk through most of the ruins. A few were roped off for restoration/excavation.

You can also climb up Huayna Picchu, the tall, sharp spire that sits behind the ruins from the classic vantage point. There are ruins at the top too, and you feel like you're floating in the sky.

You can and it is sort of a tourist trap. It is quite expensive to get there and not super easy and despite this when you get there you end up being one of the couple of thousands people visiting it every day. It felt way more people were there when I was visiting...

The closest villages are setup for tourism, hotels, restaurants all over the place, ugly buildings built just for the purpose (often unfinished) in an otherwise beautiful valley.

I am aware I was one among many but I wish the Peruvian government would regulate an protect more the site.

I am guessing now it is the moment to go there though...

The photos of Machu Picchu from above are pretty iconic, but yes, you can wander around the ruins too. We went around 10 years ago and the atmosphere in the ruins was amazing, you could almost feel the history of the place. Also, there were lots of alpacas roaming the ruins too - someone mentioned they helped keep the grass short!

The landscape and far away shots are more iconic, but you can absolutely get closer and see the ruins. They were forcing one-way traffic for tourists within the ruins and there are some restricted areas when I was there last year.

If you do decide to go, you should consider the Inca Trail, which (historically) has sold out ~6mo in advance as the govt limits # of people on the trail. We were among the first people to enter the ruins in the early AM and we had the place to ourselves briefly.

The place was overrun with tourists within an hour and it was quite jarring after being able to enjoy the peace and beauty of the mountains for a few days. The journey to get to Machu Picchu was better than just visting the ruins alone, imo.

I'm not sure how widespread the agreement about the alternate interpretation is. (I've never seen anything where Frost himself stated how he intended the poem to be taken.) But I've always tended to believe it since hearing it from an English professor of mine back in school.

Thanks for sharing this piece

Or by going to less famous places. The world is big, there is lots to see, and frankly the “top destinations” are mostly miserable to visit because of the crowds.

>instituting hard caps on the number of visitors second that. i believe we already do that in several marine sanctuaries around the world.

I lived in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia for like 6 months each. I've lived in or visited over 100 countries so far and those are still in my top 10 favorites.

> There are way older and better built things all over Asia and Europe.

Your opinion is valid but in this case because isolated societies developed independently, the “oldness” is somehow relative.

My opinion is that MP exceeded my expecations. So did Taj Majal. It’s just something in our personalities.

The alien spacecraft landing area in Nazca, PE, is not all that old but still amazing and worth visiting. I mean, aliens! On Earth!

I haven't seen as much as you, I'm sure, but I did like MP more than Angkor Wat. They are roughly the same timeframe but MP felt like AW done with Expert Mode turned on and at altitude. Would love to hear a couple from your list that I might consider.

Yeah, it's a bit like claims that "we don't know how they built the pyramids" and such. There are multiple competing theories. The fact that we don't know, for certain, exactly which one matches what was done thousands of years ago doesn't mean the technique has been "lost." There's no engineering mystery here, just a gap in historical knowledge.

Care to expand on these techniques?

Sorry, did not mean to discredit. What I meant was: The researcher did all this work to build up a chain of arguments to support their hypothesis and then basically says "every other hypothesis is impossible."

No, it's not a mis-parse. It's a justified criticism of racist journalism.

It's whitewashing of the world .

Take for example the Monk Fruit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siraitia_grosvenorii

Known in China...but scientific name attributed to the westerner who "found it" in the 1930s.

It's very common if you are cognizant of it.